But while there are a tremendous number of SEO blogs, many of them well known, well trafficked, and well written, there seems to be a disproportionately lower number of PPC blogs. I’ve always found this a bit curious, but I suppose it makes sense as blogging and blog promotion is often either a direct responsibility or an important overlapping component for SEOs – far more so than the average PPC campaign manager. But recently I’ve noticed a definite uptick in the number of really strong pay-per click focused blogs and blog content. As a result I thought we’d put together a comprehensive “living” list of all the best pay-per click focused blogs. The main criteria are:

Some PPC Focus – not requiring 100% here but PPC should at least be amongst the core focuses on these blogs

Delivers Real Value – Sometimes “beginner” content is new to some people (namely beginners) so we won’t take off points for more pedestrian content, but the blog does need to add some value over what you can get in the AdWords help section

Updates at Least Sometimes – Certainly don’t need to be daily blogs, but none of the blogs on the list should be so far outdated that a trip to the blog wouldn’t provide value for the visitor (and you should let us know if they are).

Beyond the obvious of not being a splog and having a minimum requirement re: very basic grammar, spelling, sentence structure, etc. that’s basically it. We want this page to be chock full of *all* the awesome PPC blogs on the Web so if we missed one or some (which we certainly did) please please please leave it in the comments (even if it’s your own!) Bonus points if you do the legwork of providing us with a starting point for description and posts to highlight.

We also created some cool tools to accompany the post so you can get the most out of the list – these will also be updated as we get new recommendations:

A custom Google search engine (available below, hat tip to this post and James Zolman and Lee Odden’s idea to set up a custom search engine that queries only those blogs)

Marin Software is a leading provider of both Enterprise (>$100K) and Professional (<$100K) online advertising management software. Started in 2006 they have continued to grow their impressive list of customers through the years as well as expanding the capabilities of their platform. As the world of Social and Mobile advertising has expanded they have built a comprehensive solution that meets online advertisers’ needs. We currently work with many of Marin’s customers and have seen a high level of satisfaction. BoostCTR recommends Marin for advertisers looking for a consolidated ad solution..

Brad Geddes is definitely one of the smartest guys in search marketing. Brad contributes to the pay-per click community in a variety of ways, including frequent contributions on Webmaster World’s forums, a regular column on Search Engine Land, and a frequent speaker and presenter at various conferences and through his AdWords Seminars – and he wrote an outstanding book on Advanced Google AdWords. Brad’s blog has a wealth of great how-to information and he frequently unearths functionality from within the PPC platform interfaces that most people didn’t know existed, and demonstrates how and why it’s valuable.

PPC Blog has quickly become a top resource for PPC content. The site’s main focus is on a paid PPC Training and Community program, but they share a lot of great tips and insights on the public-facing blog. Geordie Carswell is the site’s main author and has a really interesting perspective as someone who leveraged PPC to drive a tremendous amount of business for an affiliate network – so he understands things from the perspective of both the typical advertiser and the affiliate, and he maintains the PPC Blog Community, which is home to a lot of smart advertisers and a lot of smart affiliates. All of that gives him access to a lot of data that tends to be a step or two ahead of some blog content, and is really evident in the content on PPC Blog.

Chad’s a definite “future star” in the space and is already really a thought leader. Chad’s blog is outstanding because it offers a level of detail and practical application that you almost never see in paid search blogs. Chad has an outstanding mix of in-depth video how-to content and a nice collection of free pre-formatted spreadsheets that can help you do everything from implement modified broad match to identify negative search queries.

The team at Click Equations are some of the smartest and most passionate people in paid search, and that is definitely reflected in their blog content. The Click Equations blog is generally authored by Craig Danuloff and Alex Cohen, and the content is a nice mix of editorial around news and trends in paid search, along with more tactical how-to content and in-depth articles on paid search approach and philosophy.

Search Engine Land features some of the greatest minds in paid search in their collection of pay-per click content, including Josh Dreller, Brad Geddes, Matt Van Wagner, and more. These break down into three excellent column categories:

Similar to the Search Engine Land columns, Search Engine Watch features a collection of outstanding PPC minds contributing to a regular column on the site. Authors such as John Lee and Joe Kerschbaum from Clix and Alex Cohen from Click Equations regularly contribute the SEW Search Advertising Column and pack it with advice on how to improve your paid search campaigns.

3 Posts We Like from The Search Engine Watch Search Advertising Column

David Szetela has been speaking and writing about pay-per click marketing for years (he even wrote the book), and has been blogging at Clix for years. David’s contributions are always excellent but his busy schedule keeps him from posting as frequently as he once did, but Clix team members John Lee and Joe Kershbaum are two of the best PPC bloggers in the business (both formerly of PPC Hero, which is also included in this list) and have begun contributing to the blog regularly of late.

The RKG Blog has consistently created outstanding advanced paid search content for years. Some of the best analysis and commentary on important changes in the AdWords system, bid management best practices, cross channel attribution, and more lives on the RKG Blog – it might not be a great first stop for beginners trying to get a handle on PPC basics, but every serious paid search marketer should frequent the blog at some point in their career.

PPC Hero is hands-down one of the best and best-read blogs on paid search marketing. It’s been around for years, and is updated daily by the team at Hannapin Marketing. The blog offers a wealth of how-to materials and always has the latest updates on the AdWords platform, Facebook PPC, adCenter, etc. and they do a nice roundup of PPC news every Friday.

The Redfly blog offers one of the best balances of really thorough how-to guide content and unique, interesting, advanced tactics that aren’t rehashed from other blogs around the Web. The Redfly team posts on the blog and founder Dave Davis consistently makes excellent contributions on the blog.

The Efficient Frontier Blog is a great example of a strong corporate B2B blog: they offer a ton of proprietary (but anonymized) data from their clients around trends in how paid search is performing, distribution of spend across engines, useful case studies, commentary on important events in the paid search space, and how-to content.

The Seer Interactive Blog has become one of the best blogs in the search marketing space – the blog has a ton of outstanding content on SEO but they also have a category dedicated to PPC and the content there is very good as well and well worth a read and an add to your RSS feed.

PPCAnalytica has just entered the PPC blog space with their first post on 12/02/2010: Generating a Sample of AdWords Data Using R. Some of you may be uncomfortable with the technical nature of this blog, but I assure that most great PPC insights come from an intimate knowledge of the underlying data that makes up our PPC campaigns. This blog promises to shed light on the more technical side of PPC, like: managing very large accounts, decision making with sparse data, statistics for PPC, and other new and interesting PPC challenges. This is not your average PPC blog content.

The Acquisio Blog posts periodically, but often offers a lot of unique insights on search in general and particularly on PPC. They also expose some great free tools that are very handy for paid search marketers.

The SEM Science Blog isn’t a typical paid search blog: you don’t see updates on the newest features in pay-per click interfaces and you don’t see traditional how-to information, but rather a series of guide and articles on PPC philosophy that feature fresh takes on various elements of paid search campaign management.

The Search Agents blog features a mix of SEO and PPC content and you can grab all the PPC content in this category, and the paid search content is quite good and shares a nice amount of proprietary data as well as having some unique and contrarian takes on conventional PPC wisdom.

Shawn Livengood is one of a handful of “newer” bloggers creating great content that leverages their in-the-trenches experiences – reading Shawn’s blog you can tell his observations and specific advice come from hands on experience.

Melissa Mackey is a well-known paid search marketing expert who has had appearances on shows such as Wilson Web and PPC Rockstars as well as being a contributer to Search Engine Watch, and her blog and Twitter stream are top-notch resources for pay-per click best practices and new wrinkles and features in the paid search platforms.

Robert Brady is another PPC specialist with a great Twitter feed for discovering new PPC content, and his blog has some great insights on issues with the Facebook PPC platform and best practices around the AdWords and paid search platforms.

In addition to his contributions on the Click Equations Blog and Search Engine Watch, Alex Cohen maintains his own blog where he periodically contributes insights you won’t find in the other two publications and posts his presentations from the numerous conferences where Click Equations is present.

The Official Blogs of the Platforms Themselves

Getting information from the horse’s mouth is always a good idea, and the AdWords related Google blogs and the Microsoft adCenter Blog are often the best place to get the latest information on new features and policy changes on the AdWords platform.

The WordStream blog covers a variety of topics but posts regularly on the topic of PPC (including posts from yours truly) – Chad Summerhill from PPC Prospector is another frequent poster there, and Elisa Gabbert does a fantastic weekly roundup that often covers various paid search topics.

Andrew Goodman writes the Traffick blog, which has a number of different focuses but produces a good deal of content on the subject of PPC. Andrew wrote the book Winning Results with Google AdWords, is an excellent writer, and puts out a lot of high-quality content on paid search tactics and trends on the Traffick blog.

The Ion blog isn’t strictly about PPC, per sey, but they cover a critical component of pay-per click marketing: landing page optimization. Additionally, they frequently relate CRO to paid search and PPC, so the blog is a major asset for anyone managing a paid search campaign.

The Unbounce Blog is a relatively new blog that focuses on landing page optimization. Oli Gardner is the primary author over there and the content is consistently excellent – like the Ion Interactive Blog, the focus isn’t strictly on pay-per click but the focus on landing page optimization will help you get some great tips on a crucial component of successful paid search.

The PPC Summit blog is a great resource maintained by The Internet Marketing Institute – the organizers of various seminars and conferences on paid search, social media, online marketing in general. The blog features a mix of staff contributions and guest posts from various contributors.

The calculate Marketing Blog is Allan Mitchell’s blog. Allan Mitchell is a frequent commenter on a number of paid search marketing blogs, and his insights and input are always interesting and thoughtful. His blog is no different. Not unlike the Click Equations blog he churns out a nice combination of practical PPC how-to content and higher level paid search philosophy.

Matt is one of our favorite people in PPC – he’s very active on Twitter and does a great job of engaging followers and responding to people he follows (imagine that!). Both his Twitter feed and his blog have a very “in the trenches” type of feel because he’s clearly knee deep in pay-per click campaigns. He shares a nice mix of how-to content and occasional odds and ends regarding new features and updates within paid search platforms.

This one almost doesn’t meet our frequency requirements, but the content when updated is strong enough to land them on the list. You’ll find a nice mix of commentary on news and actual test results on the SEM Booty Blog making it more than worth the read.

The SEM Geek blog has been around for years and Greg Myers does a great job delivering a variety of PPC tips, commentary, and interviews. Some of his input on the subject of political PPC is particularly interesting.

Dan Perach and Elan Perach update the PPC Proz blog only occasionally, but when they do there are often some really interesting insights shared there. Dan is also really active in the paid search community and can frequently be seen commenting on other blogs in the space.

More Great PPC Blogs:

As we predicted, when we first created the list there were plenty of people we missed. Here is the list of blogs we’ve had pointed out to us since launching the Best PPC Blogs list which are all also certainly amongst the best PPC blogs on the Web:

Share Your Opinion

Hi Tom,
You've given me incentive now to update the blog more often, thanks.
Since we've gotten active with Twitter, seems most energy has gone there, but we will now commit to more frequent blog updates, the first being our initial impressions of the recent google merchant center feed into adwords PLA and product extension integration.

WOW! This is an awesome list - I'm honored to be listed with so many rock stars and luminaries!
I'll be sending a lot of people over any time somebody asks me "which blogs do you recommend I read for getting into ppc?"

Thanks for this brilliant post - there are some great blogs on here I'm already following and quite a few I wasn't but am now! I write PPC blogs for our site: http://www.philyarrow.co.uk/author/hannah/

Hey Everyone,
Thanks for the kind words, and to anyone on the list it's much deserved! The list would only be interesting/useful if the Content is good :) - I've started using the custom search already and found it useful in researching blog content so I'm grateful to the bloggers.
@Dan looking forward to more activity on the blog! Twitter's definitely stolen a lot of time/attention from blogging.
@Hannah Hi Hannah I follow you on Twitter and we'll definitely update the list to include your blog!
Thanks to Chad for the nomination above we've had seven great suggestions today already! I'll be updating later today and we'll be taking suggestions continually definitely let us know if there are blogs you find in your travels!
Thanks everyone!
Tom

Great list guys..plenty to learn from. Having set us this year it is clear we have some stuff to do at our blog to maybe make the list for next year!! But some of these are brilliant so thanks for the info...booked!! www.clickvisionmedia.co.uk/blog-2...any feedback would be appreciated

I find Bryan Eisenberg and Avinash Kaushik as you mentioned very critical to follow for all Internet Marketers. I recently took Avinash's Analytics Master Certification course and it changed my perspective of data analysis completely. Excellent post and thank you for sharing the resources.

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